Caffeinated Clint
Those who caught this week’s season finale of “Homeland”, the critically acclaimed drama starring Claire Danes as a bipolar C.I.A. agent in love with a treacherous war hero (Damian Lewis), might have pondered the question : “What if Brody had died in that explosion, too?”
Seems the producers asked themselves the same question – in fact, they’ve been tossing up on whether to kill Brody (Lewis) for a while now.
“It’s an open question, but I think inevitably that’s going to happen,” EP and co-creator Alex Gansa, tells THR, suggesting the show would then concentrate on the dynamic between Carrie (Danes) and her mentor Saul (Mandy Patinkin). “If you look at these two seasons, the Carrie-Brody relationship, we’ve told a significant part of that story. If there’s a chapter three, it’s going to have to be a reinvention of some kind. There is a point at which we will fall back on the franchise, which is Carrie Mathison and Saul Berenson trying to keep the world safe.”
At this stage, Ganza and fellow co-creator and executive producer Howard Gordon have yet to decide on the direction of the show’s third season. With the character of Brody now having fled the scene of a bombing that he’s been blamed for, and headed into international waters to escape authorities, there’s a chance we mightn’t see Brody, let alone actor Damian Lewis for a while.
“We have the prospect that he could come back at some point, if not next season,” says Gordon. “If we had given in to this shocking impulse to kill Brody in the middle of the season, we would have sacrificed a lot of those moments between Carrie and Brody as the season drew to a close — and we would have never been able to tell the finale.”
As Ganza says, having a “Where is Brody? What’s he doing?” question throughout the next season could evoke some interesting storytelling. Then, “[He could come] back later in a new incarnation or in a new way.”
The story dictates where the show goes, not the accolades.
“We love the Carrie-Brody relationship,” Gordon told EW. “It’s become one of the defining pillars of the show. The temptation and fear attached to whenever the relationship [is] no longer the center of the show is certainly something that’s on our minds. But as afraid as we are, you can’t let all the awards and acclaim and Damian’s brilliance dictate the story in terms of where it needs to go.”
There’s also the possibility that we mightn’t see as much – or any – of Brody’s clan next season.
The “clean canvas” that Season 2 ends with was planned for a while now, says Ganza.
“It was just [about] getting to the moment when Nazir [Navid Negahban] and Walden [Jamey Sheridan] were dead, and there was this deluded possibility that [Carrie and Brody] could be together,” says Gansa. “The last season started with Carrie being the only who thought Brody was guilty and this one ended with her being the only one thought he was innocent.”
The third season of “Homeland” will likely air late 2013.
